OpenText releases its results of the OpenText Security Solutions 2022 Australian Small- Medium Business (SMB) Ransomware Survey.

A survey conducted from September 24 to October 10, 2022, by OpenText Security Solutions polled 1,332 security and IT professionals from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), with up to 1,000 employees, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

The findings show ransomware attacks, rising inflation rates, and geopolitical tensions are all contributing to growing concern among respondents. Moreover, 92% of respondents said they were either very concerned or extremely concerned about an attack affecting their business.

Executive Vice President, OpenText Security Solutions, Prentiss Donohue says small to medium businesses are an attractive target for hackers because they frequently lack cybersecurity resources, both technology and security expertise.

“Today’s complex threat landscape presents a huge risk to SMBs that don’t have sufficient cyber resiliency preparation to stop the spread and recover quickly from an attack”

“With adversaries becoming increasingly sophisticated and relentless, a multi-layered protection strategy is no longer a nice to have, it is a necessity.” says Donohue

The survey findings include:

SMBs are concerned about increased ransomware risks due to heightened geopolitical tensions, as they face tightening security budgets.

• Two thirds (67%) of SMBs are worried about their cybersecurity budget shrinking amid rising inflation rates.
• 63% of respondents feel more at risk of suffering a ransomware attack because of heightened geopolitical tensions.
• 42% are extremely concerned about a ransomware attack impacting their business.

SMBs are unaware if they have been hit by ransomware and budgets to protect against these risks are low.

• Over half (60%) of SMBs have experienced a ransomware attack, yet 49% still don’t think or aren’t sure they are a ransomware target.
• The majority (61%) of respondents are not confident or only somewhat confident that they can fend off a ransomware attack.
• Despite many having experienced an attack before, security budgets are minimal to protect against ransomware and other threats: 76% spend less than $50,000 per year; 43% spend less than $20,000 per year; and only 9% spend more than $50,000.

SMBs are attracted to the idea of using a managed service provider (MSP) to bolster their security efforts.

• More SMBs outsource their security to an IT provider or MSP than not, with 71% using external security management support.
• Concurrently, 79% of SMBs that don’t currently use an MSP would consider doing so in the future.

Security and technical employees represented a variety of roles from the C-suite across multiple industries, including technology, retail, education, manufacturing, healthcare, and other sectors.

OpenText Security Solutions provide Webroot Security, Carbonite Data Management, BrightCloud® Threat Intelligence, and EnCase Digital Forensics and Threat Response to help organisations of all sizes achieve cyber resilience.